June 30, 2011

To support himself, Paul, though an educated man for whom work would be frowned upon, worked as a leatherworker, fixing shoes, belts, harnesses or anything made of leather, including tents. As a leatherworker, Paul could meet new customers and, since the work was rather quiet, he could engage them in religious conversations.

There would be plenty of work for him in Corinth not only because of Corinth’s large population but also because Corinth hosted the Isthmian games every two years—the second largest after the Athenian Olympics. The people who flocked to the games would need tents to live in.

In a new city, Paul could connect with other leatherworkers—which seems to be how he met the Jewish-Christian married couple Pricilla (Prisca) and Aquila, also a leatherworker who had left Rome in the persecution of Jews in 49-50 AD. In Corinth, he lived with them.

June 23, 2011

Paul’s most extensive teaching about the eucharist is found in his first letter to the Corinthians. When Paul first moved his missionary work from the Roman province of Asia Minor (now Turkey; see Acts 13–16) into Europe, he traveled across Greece, founding communities in Phillipi, Thessolonika, and, after brief but unfruitful visit to Athens, in Corinth.

Paul stayed in Corinth building a Christian community for about 18 months from Spring 50 to Fall 51, when he returned to Antioch. (See Acts 18 for a brief description of this time in Corinth).

A few years later while staying in Ephesus, Paul learned through letters and visitors (Corinth is almost directly across the Aegean Sea from Ephesus) of the Corinthian community’s breakdown into factions and of several questionable Christian behaviors, so he wrote a letter to redirect their Christian thinking and behavior.

June 20, 2011

The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she thought: still it had very long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt it ought to be treated with respect. “Cheshire-Puss,” she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. “Come, it’s pleased so far,” thought Alice, and she went on. “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where…” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

“…so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.

“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

Lewis Carroll

Alice in Wonderland

The first step in becoming an effective class manager is to believe you can be one. You can. But in order to make this belief a reality, you must have some idea of where you and your students are to end up at the end of the school year or semester. Thus, the second step in becoming an effective class manager is to know where you are going. And, if you do not, you will end up like Alice. You will find yourself, as a catechist, doing things just for the sake of doing them and not because they are helping you and your students to reach your destination. To prevent this, you need to have a clear idea of what it is that the students are to know, to feel and to be able to do as a result of their spending time with you in class. If you do not have some goals clearly in mind, you, like Alice, will wander aimlessly.

When reading and thinking about Paul and his communities and how they celebrated the eucharist, we must recall that he was first and foremost a pastor whose main goal was to found, develop and maintain Christian communities. He did not try to write systematic explanations but developed his theology out of his practical concern to help his communities discover a new Christian way of life.

Paul's “good news” included not just a doctrine but an invitation to join a community with a new “Way” to relate to God and live with others. Before Christianity was called Christianity, it was called "The Way" (Acts 9:2, 18:25-26). After Paul was converted from a persecutor of "The Way" to a follower, he spent his life proclaiming this new Way and explaining its demands to his converts—first to the Jews, and then to the Gentiles.

Paul’s letters are the earliest Christian documents that we have. Born about the same time as Jesus and converted to Christianity within a few years of Jesus’ death, Paul is our richest resource for what life was like in the earliest Christian communities. His missionary work brought the gospel to the Gentiles and he was responsible for founding and nourishing many new Christian communities throughout the Mediterranean region.

Paul, especially in his first letter to the Christians in Corinth, written about 20 years after Jesus’ death, provides hints both about the way the community celebrated the eucharist and insights into the meaning of the eucharist for the community. From Paul’s solutions to what was going wrong in their celebrations, we can learn what he thought was the true meaning of their eucharistic meal and its importance for their lives as Christians.

As we know, a meal is never simply an occasion for eating but tell us a lot about the people who are taking part and their relationships with one another. The more formal the meal, the more complex the messages. So as we study Paul’s concern for the way the eucharistic meal is celebrated, we will discover much about how the eucharist reveals the meaning of their faith and serves as a guide for their life together.

June 11, 2011

Can’t remember what or when Pentecost is? Well for starters, it’s this Sunday; and if you want a little more info on this celebration of the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the Church, take a look at Busted Halo’s two minute video.